Small Business

If your smartphone screen cracks, do you get it fixed or trade it in for the latest model? Repairing items can be less wasteful, but there are also growing legal challenges for people whose business is to repair technology from smartphones to tractors.

This hour, we talk about the “Right to Repair” movement. It's a debate that pits concerns about users’ ability to modify their own items against big companies’ concerns about intellectual property rights.

Join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

Connecticut now has someone in charge of manufacturing policy for the entire state. Colin Cooper, the CEO of aerospace manufacturing company the Whitcraft Group, based in Eastford, has been appointed to the newly created position of chief manufacturing officer.

Venture into any of Connecticut's municipal centers and you will likely notice an empty storefront … or two or three or, well, you get the point.

This hour, we ask: What impact do these vacancies have on the vitality of local communities? And what resources are available to help these communities attract and retain more retail businesses?

Including this weekend's carnage in Texas and Ohio, there were 253 incidents in which four or more victims were shot in the first 217 days of this year, according to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive.

But is Congress ever going to take Connecticut's lead and address any of them?

Want a spicy but refreshing mangonada to go with that enchiladas con carne?

Head down to New Haven's Long Wharf Drive where a long line of food trucks serve up an eclectic array of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Central, and South American specialities. A little salsa music too.

New Department of Economic and Community Development commissioner David Lehman has begun raising his public profile, just days after his controversial nomination was confirmed by the state senate.

The state Senate voted Wednesday to confirm Gov. Ned Lamont's controversial choice to run the Department of Economic and Community Development. David Lehman's nomination has been criticized by lawmakers of both parties, mostly because of his previous job at the investment banking firm Goldman Sachs and its role in the 2008 financial crisis. 

Small and midsize Connecticut aerospace companies are once again planning to make their presence felt at Europe’s largest air show this summer. 

Legislative leaders say they may consider a special session to look at potential problems with the state’s tax incentive programs for businesses. An audit of economic development incentives administered by state officials has found inaccuracies in both the level of tax credits and the amount of job creation achieved by the companies that benefited. 

The Federal Communications Commission has ordered Obama-era net neutrality rules to end April 23. That essentially opens the door for internet service providers to treat certain content differently. That has technology companies raising the alarm.

A Connecticut business that was started out of its founder’s basement just 10 years ago, has grown into the state’s only “unicorn” - a privately held business that’s worth more than a billion dollars. But now Norwalk-based Datto has been sold. 

A new insurance technology company will be moving from the Netherlands to Connecticut after winning an international pitch competition. 

As Republican and Democratic leaders in the General Assembly inch closer to a budget deal, one casualty of the negotiations may be the Office of State Broadband. Elimination of the office has been proposed in at least two budget plans, despite costing the state no money.

Best Video Film and Cultural Center in Hamden is asking the Greater New Haven community for funds to help keep it afloat. The store has thrived in the post-video rental era, but a series of setbacks may force the non-profit to close for good.

Best Video got its start in the 1980s, where it had a reputation for stocking classic and foreign films and other hard-to-find gems.